Cavaliers Cricket Club, Colchester, Essex, England

14 September 2019

2019 Finale Sees Brockley Beaten

The Saturday XI travelled to Brockley in Suffolk today and batted first after D Dellar won his final toss as Cavaliers captain.

The innings started well as the openers Dellar and S Gilhooly added 20 in 6 overs before Dellar (8) was bowled. The Cavs then batted superbly, with Gilhooly reaching 7,000 club runs in the 15th over before continuing on to a 61-ball fifty as he and N Jalib added 106 for the second wicket (the highest second wicket stand of the 2019 season). The partnership was eventually broken in the 24th over as Jalib (45) was caught, but Gilhooly continued to bat well with P Kannan (who hit a big six onto the pavilion roof!). The next wicket to fall was that of Kannan's (12) to make the score 154/3 after 28.5 overs but, with the field spread, Gilhooly and K Chowdhury reaped their rewards, adding 79 for the fourth wicket (the joint-highest fourth wicket stand of 2019), pushing the score up to 233/3 after 39 overs before Chowdhury (30) was stumped, though Gilhooly had already brought up his 14th Cavaliers century by that point (from 98 balls). In a push for quick runs, wickets fell at regular intervals from that point, with B Prabhu (4), Gilhooly (124), N Davidson (0) and B Aslam (1) all out before the end of the innings. With T Hijazi (10*) the unbeaten batsman, the Cavaliers reached 261/8 from their 45 overs.

The Cavaliers defence of their target got off to a fine start as N Davidson (6-0-29-1) struck in the first over; B Aslam taking a tumbling catch at mid-on. Brockley then progressed to 27/1 from 7 overs before S Riaz (5-1-18-1) drew an edge which was taken by D Young, moving sharply to his right. With the opposition moving to 67/2, the Cavs struck twice in quick succession; B Aslam bursting through the defences of the Brockley #4 before B Prabhu (6-2-27-1) removed the dangerous C Jones (42) in the next over as Brockley slipped to 67/4. The next two wickets to fall also fell to Aslam (6-0-21-3), via an excellently judged catch at long-off by S Gilhooly and then a ball that just clipped the top of off stump to make it 88/6 after 23 overs. Aslam's fine day in the field continued as he took a stunning one-handed catch at slip off T Hijazi (3-0-11-1) while K Chowdhury (3-1-9-0) had a brief spell at the other end. With the game (and season) drawing to a close, Dellar turned to P Kannan (0.5-0-0-2) who mopped up the last two wickets of the innings as Brockley were all out for 109 in 29.5 overs - The Cavaliers finishing 2019 with a 152 run win.